'Raising A Guide Dog Puppy Means Changing A Life': From Solano County

By Kathy Keatley Garvey:

Raising a guide dog puppy means changing a life, says Vacaville resident Nora Salet, leader of the Solano County Puppy Raiser Club for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

And changing a life opens up a new world. “When you look at a puppy, you will see a puppy (but) a person who is blind sees the world.”

And so it was at the recent 6th Annual Guide Dog Puppy Raiser Fun Day at Jelly Belly, Fairfield, hosted by the Solano County Puppy Raiser Club. It was a day to remember—for the puppies, their handlers, the alumni and the volunteers.

It was a day of goodwill, good memories and good partnerships.

The event, highlighted by educational programs, activity stations, an obstacle course, a scavenger hunt, and a “meet-and-greet-farm animals,” drew more than 100 people and 56 guide dogs from all over California and Nevada.

Participants came from Vacaville, Fairfield, American Canyon, Dixon and Winters as well as Modesto, Fresno, Sacramento, Grass Valley, San Rafael, San Francisco, Auburn and Carson City.

“We also had handlers and dogs from Canine Companions for Independence (CCI) Paws for Healing, and Good Dog Autism,” Salet said. “The activities are all free and also helpful to puppy raisers and their puppies.”

“We love putting this event on each year,” Salet said. “We try to get new presenters and helpful and exciting topics for the puppy raisers. This event brings together raisers from different areas allowing them to meet other raisers and maybe littermates of their puppies. Jelly Belly is very hospitable to us and it is a fun location.”

The raisers acquire the puppy guide dog at around eight weeks and socialize it---teaching it good manners, good behavior and good etiquette for about a year. Then, at about age 13 to 15 months, it’s off to a Guide Dog for the Blind campus for formal training. When the pups graduate as guides, the raiser is invited to a graduate ceremony to present the guide to the new partner.

The puppies attending the Fairfield-based event sported names like Avon, Zest, Fallon and Joaquin. “Guide Dogs for the Blind names all the puppies and as long as a puppy is in training or a working guide, the name is not used again,” Salet said. “Each puppy in a litter has the first initial of the guide dog’s name, as Zest’s litter would, for example, have a Zeke and Zorro.”

The obstacle course included a puppy pool, and different walk-on surfaces. “When the raisers completed seven of nine activity stations they received a picture with their puppy,” Salet said. “When they completed the obstacle course they received a paw print medal and when the completed the scavenger hunt they received a paw print paddle ball toy.”

Participants could also make a fleece toy for the Guide Dog puppy kennel, and bid on items in the silent action. UC Davis veterinary students Ashley Pooch and Rachel Brady gave health checks to the puppies. There were also volunteer face painters, animal balloon makers, and photographers.

For the educational sessions. Diana Vasquez of Vacaville discussed Pet First Aid; John Picetti of Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), Santa Rosa, accompanied by his CCI hearing dog, Courtney, talked about the program; and Christina Vincent-Power and Mark Ruefenacht, Dogs4Diabetics, Concord, covered canine body language and mediation.

Mark Ruefenacht , founder of Dogs 4Diabetics, emphasized the power of partnerships. Also addressing the crowd was Ken Attenburger of Guide Dogs Limited, San Rafael, accompanied by his guide dog, Jabari, a graduate for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Jim Russell, community field representative of the Guide Dogs for the Blind, answered questions about Guide Dogs for the Blind in general and puppies in particular. He is the community field representative for the Solano County Puppy Raisers.

Fairfield resident and longtime 4-H leader Sue Bohannan, whose family has raised guide dogs for 11 years, sat at one of the activity tables and encouraged blindfolded participants to count a dollar in change. The activity challenged the general audience to empathize with the world of visually impaired, including those with diabetic retinopathy, macular degeneration, and cataracts.

“Many of the participants confuse a dime with a penny,” Bohannan said. The dime as edges and a penny does not. This is a way to see their world in a different way.”

The Bohannans began raising guide dogs when their daughter, Colleen, now 20, was nine. She raised them as part of her Westwind 4-H Club project. Now she attends Oregon State University, and has connected with the Chi Omega sorority to raise funds for guide dogs. Of the nine dogs raised, seven graduated. One that didn’t graduate went to a cancer patient in Vallejo.

“She overcame the cancer,” Bohannan said. “I think the guide dog partnership had a lot to do with it.”

Hannah Stephens of the Westwind 4-H Club is currently raising a guide dog.

Also offered were Jelly Belly Factory tours and opportunities for the puppy dog raisers and their puppies to use the stairs and elevators. A big hit were the small animals brought to the event by Tacy Currey of the Dixon Grange, a former leader of the Wolfskill 4-H Club, Dixon. She and her son, Spencer, a student at the University of San Diego, a member of the Dixon Grange, and former e

The animals included Pepe, a pygmy goat, black-frizzled bantam cochin; a blue runner duck; mini-rex rabbit; and the Currey dog, a Shitzu.

Pepe never tired of playing with the guide dogs and engaged in a friendly head-butting.

Also volunteering was Lizzy Kemp, a Chico State University student and Dixon Grange member and former member of the Wolfskill 4-H Club who is herself raising a guide dog puppy. At the Fun Day, she worked with another raiser’s puppy, Avon, being raised by Valerie Mull of Napa.

In addition to Bohannan, the Curreys and Kemp, among the other volunteers from the Solano County Puppy Raiser Club were Don and Kathy Young, mistress of ceremonies Diane Young, Todd and Zach Shulman, Liz and Chaney Coman, Tom Grimmeison, Nikkie Share, Taylor and Kelsey Galub, Val and Rich Mull, Tip and Donna Chase.

For more information on the Solano County Puppy Raisers, contact Salet at (707) 446-2515 or nsalet@msn.com.

PHOTO 1: Lizzy Kemp, Chico State University student and member of the Dixon Grange and former member of the Wolkskill 4-H Club, Dixon, guides a guide dog, Avon, in the obstacle course. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

PHOTO 2: UC Davis veterinary student Rachel Brady checks the health of a guide dog named Mars, owned by Paul Sikes (pictured) of Sacramento. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

PHOTO 3: One of the guide dog puppies at the 6th Annual Guide Dog Puppy Raiser Fun Day. Names ranged from Avon to Joaquin. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

PHOTO 4: Volunteer Lizzy Kemp, holding a leashed guide dog puppy named Avon, kisses Pepe, a pygmy goat, while Spencer Currey watches. Both are college students and members of the Dixon Grange. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

PHOTO 5: A guide dog named Fallon of Sacramento seems to be asking “Where’s mine?” as a pygmy goat named Pepe is bottle-fed at an annual event in Fairfield sponsored by the Solano County Puppy Raiser Club for Guide Dogs for the Blind. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

PHOTO 6: Nora Salet of Vacaville, leader of the Solano County Puppy Raiser Club for Guide Dogs for the Blind, organizes one of the activities. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)